In the wake of news that NBC plans a four-part drama about the life of Hillary Clinton and that CNN has commissioned a documentary on her, both television networks have had to deflect criticism that these are designed to bolster a potential Clinton presidential run. Reporters have had to reassert that there’s an editorial wall between their journalism and the programming decisions of network executives. NBC’s Chuck Todd, for instance, called it “a total nightmare” for the news division.

CNN’s Candy Crowley told POLITICO on Friday that her network’s planned documentary will “make life more difficult, I think there’s no doubt about it.”

“You can say all you want, this is a commissioned documentary from people who are not in the employ of CNN. It’s not me. It’s not Wolf Blitzer. It’s not John King. It’s an outside documentary group. But we’re with CNN and so this is not a story where the nuances are well-received, particularly by Republicans.”

In reference to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus’s criticism of both CNN and NBC and his threat to not partner with either network for 2016 primary debates, Crowley said that, in part, “what Reince is saying has to be looked at through a political prism,” and that Priebus has other motivations in tweaking the debate formats.

“Let’s remember how much they hated the last primary season debates, like more than 20 of them. And their real feeling was that Mitt Romney, who came out the winner of a pretty bruising season and a lot of bruising debates, which were then taken and put into Democratic commercials for President Obama, that they took a look and said, ‘We’ve got to stop these really divisive primaries. We can’t have this many debates.’ And I think this is the beginning of that.”

Still, Crowley said Priebus is mistaken on what the ultimate outcome will be.

“Reince Priebus, I think, is wrong when he suggests — I know he’s wrong — when he suggests that what CNN is trying to do is boost the [Democratic National Committee]. It’s just not. It’s programming. She’s a good story. Viewers want to know. Politically, it makes it very difficult for me. But I think it is also being used by the chairman — who I consider a friend — to continue to try to shape what 2016 will look like and to try to control those debates, pick the moderators he wants to have at those debates.”

Fox News’s Chris Wallace told POLITICO that Priebus “absolutely has a point” with his criticism.

“There’s a presumption here, but quite frankly I share the presumption, which is, particularly the miniseries with Diane Lane portraying Hillary Clinton, is going to make her look good. I don’t think they’re going to do a four-part miniseries to beat up on Hillary Clinton. I think the general assumption in Washington is she’s going to run for president, so it’s going to help her. … Having said that, do I think it’s going to be a major factor in whether she’s elected president? No.”